Eden:
I have asked on several different threads why Luther had the authority to speak for God. Until now, no one has answered my question. If you could share that information with me, I’m very eager to learn.
Ok. Got it. A few things come to mind. First I deny “Lutherans
are named for Luther because they live by his interpretation of what Christ desired not by the desires of Christ himself.” That is indeed a loaded sentence! For the sake of brevity, let’s simply leave the second thought out, and assume that Lutherans desire to live by the desire of Christ. But foremost, Lutherans (at least the one’s I know) do not follow Luther because of his interpretation(s). For the sake of brevity, let’s just limit it to the gospel and Luther’s “interpretation.”
Luther arrived at “Justification by faith alone” and so did Zwingli, probably independent of each other, (they were contemporaries). Why? Because it was taught by Paul in Romans. Luther, Zwingli, Calvin, and the Reformers in general, while they disagreed on many issues, agreed on one thing: the scriptures plainly teach justification by faith alone. As Luther poured through the Greek New Testament, he saw what was written in the Bible. Luther said, “I’m not asking anyone to believe me, but I am asking men to believe the plain words of God.”
But you’re thinking, wait a minute! That’s just Luther’s interpretation! The Catholic Church gave us the Scriptures and never taught Luther’s newfound doctrine. But here’s what happened. The Church, by and large, followed Augustine’s understanding here. Alister McGrath explains:
McGrath sees Augustine’s treatment of justification as pivotal to the subsequent development of the doctrine of justification in the Roman Catholic Church: “Augustine understands the verb iustificare to mean ‘to make righteous,’ an understanding of the term which he appears to have held throughout his working life. In arriving at this understanding, he appears to have interpreted -ficare as the unstressed form of facere, by analogy with vivificare and mortificare. Although this is a permissible interpretation of the Latin word, it is unacceptable as an interpretation of the Hebrew concept which underlies it.”
Source: Faith Alone, R.C. Sproul
Along comes Luther, and with Erasmus’s Greek New Testament, scholars are able to determine the Latin translation of the Greek word for justification was incorrect. The Greek word does not mean “making righteous”, but “pronouncing righteous”. Even if Luther didn’t come along, scholars who study translating would have figured this out eventually. Thus, it’s not just Luther’s interpretation. It’s what the words mean.
Now to the heart of your question. Why does Luther think he has the right to speak for God?
First off, Luther was not an “infallible” mini-pope or whatever, so really, your question is an innacurate question. Luther never saw himself as an infallible interpreter, getting direct messages from God like a tele-evangelist.
Let’s answer this question as a Roman Catholic. Luther was ordained a Doctor of Theology via the Roman Catholic Church. He was given the right to speak for God (in terms of teaching). He was also a minister, and was ordained by the Roman Catholic Church to speak for God (in the sense of preaching).
There is some ambiguity as to what type of “heretic” Luther actually was. There was no complete dogma on the indulgence when Luther posted the 95 Theses. There was no official doctrine as to the effect of the indulgence upon Purgatory… And, there was no official doctrine of justification. Hence, Luther was not really a heretic (in official “Thus spoke Rome” terms). Remember, one is heretic when the go against official Church teaching. Trent was concluded after Luther died. Roman Catholics have always told me that until a doctrine is defined, there is freedom to debate and discuss differing opinions. Thus, Luther was given the right to preach and teach “for God” by the Roman Catholic Church.
I’m just getting warmed up, but I have to go to bed. More on this later.
Regards,
James Swan
